This invention is concerned primarily with crop roll forming machines. Specifically it is concerned with apparatus which collect crop material particles lost from the crop package or loose crop material during the roll formation process and recycle those particles back into the roll forming region for inclusion within the completed roll package.
Historically, it has been the custom to harvest forage crops by mowing the crops, letting them dry in the field, forming the dried crop material into windrows and passing a hay baling machine over and along those windrows to form the crop material into rectangular bales. Recent practice has shown that the formation of crop materials into large compact rolls, rather than rectangular bales as formerly done, permitted the crop material to be deposited in roll form and left in fields for extended periods of time since the rolled material tends to provide a self-shedding protective covering from inclement weather. The ability to leave these rolled bales in fields thus obviated the additional steps of gathering the rectangular bales and transporting them to a storage area protected from the elements.
Several methods for forming compact rolls of crop material have evolved through the years. In one of these methods, a machine rolls a swath or windrow of crop material along the ground until a roll of desired size is obtained. Examples of machines utilizing this principle are shown in prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,110,145, dated Nov. 12, 1963. Another similar machine comprises the subject matter of prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,650,100, dated Mar. 21, 1972. One of the principle difficulties in using this method of forming rolls of crop material is that a certain amount of the material remains upon the ground without being included in the roll. Furthermore, dirt, clods of earth, stones and the like can also be picked up by the roll and included therein. This is undesirable under certain circumstances.
A later, and more successful, method of forming crop rolls comprises a machine in which a swath or windrow of material is picked up from the field and directed onto a lower conveyor. This conveyor transports the material to a roll forming region where an upper apron or flight of belts, usually positioned above and adjacent the conveyor, moves in a suitable direction to rotate the crop material with which it contacts. The loss of crop particles from this type of machine has been a lingering concern. Variations of this type of crop roll forming machine are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,909 to Mast, dated Jan. 14, 1975, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,197 dated Mar. 27, 1973. An improvement of the former type of machine as shown in prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,531 to Todd, dated Feb. 18, 1975, attempted to solve this problem through the use of leaf springs.
The increasing popularity of crop roll forming machines has seen their use broaden from rolling wintering forage for livestock to rolling high protein crops, such as alfalfa, for dairy livestock where the amount of crop material loss is critical. In this latter area especially, interest in the amount of high nutrient crop material lost during roll formation has intensified.
The roll forming machines of the type taught in Todd with leaf springs have proven extremely effective in virtually all types of crops. However, regardless of the type of crop, some crop particles were always lost from the crop material package as it was being rotated. Other particles would be carried out the back of the machine by the lower conveyor or lower apron. Since there was no collection apparatus, these particles merely fell back onto the field and were lost.
The foregoing problem is solved in the design of the machine comprising the present invention by substantially decreasing the amount of crop material lost during the roll formation process.